The glitz and misery of fan sites
Recently, in the field of online communities, it is impossible not to notice several obvious changes that I want to talk about.
For more than 3 years I have been a fan site administrator. Throughout this time (and even more), I try to follow similar communities on the network, their life and development. I want to stress right away that I am interested in narrow-topic communities supported by enthusiasts, and not commercial projects.
According to my observations, the flowering of such communities in the Russian-speaking Internet took place in 2005-2009. This corresponds to the time when high-speed Internet access appeared among the broad masses of the population (in particular, the “middle class” and social groups close to it in terms of income and lifestyle), and the prices for hosting and renting domain names decreased. As a result, a person got the opportunity to relatively easily and cheaply open a website dedicated to his favorite team, singer, rock band, actor, his hobby, etc. This site could be promoted by honest methods and get high rankings in search results without active PR and SEO. Simply put, this site could be successful. Widespread forums (almost completely supplanted guest books and message boards). The technical and informative level of such sites could be completely different.
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However, gradually such communities began to fade. The active process took place in 2010-2011, after which only the largest and most active fan sites could remain “afloat”. However, their future is also foggy, which well illustrates the decline in attendance.
The main one is the emergence of social networks. Those made it possible to create “clubs of interest” in a simpler and more convenient way, with not less functionality, but requiring significantly less costs. A vivid example is VKontakte groups, sometimes with a huge audience. For an ordinary user, reading news from several groups in a single feed of updates is also more convenient than visiting several forums.
Another significant reason is related to the sharply increased commercialization of the Internet. Amateur site is now much more difficult to get into the top search engine results than before. Many fan sites have no financial support at all, except for the pockets of their owners, and are unable to withstand the competition with SEO projects.
There are several other reasons that seem less important. So, for example, it is easy to notice that network communication is now more egocentric than before. The development of social networks has led to the fact that people have a lot of new opportunities to talk about themselves : about where they are , what they think, what they like and so on. Services like Foursquare even turn it into something like a certain game, handing out badges for the maximum number of places visited on the map. In such a situation, writing “not about yourself” in your free time requires more motivation.
Some time ago it was considered that fan sites would be greatly helped by advertising and banner displays on the site. Receiving advertising revenue is indeed an effective means of supporting the site, but in practice almost no fan site could organize banner ads at the proper level. The reasons include the lack of necessary skills and knowledge among administrators of such sites (it’s no secret that among the creators of such communities the percentage of non-IT people, schoolchildren and students is very high), lack of motivation, as well as low income from ads that could be relevant to such sites . For example, it is quite simple to get income on a regular blog about life hacking or “photo collections a la Boston.com/bigpicture” by hanging the banner of some related project. Relevant ads for a fan site dedicated to, for example, a music group, are much smaller, in addition, they are usually cheaper. So the most popular way to financially help fan sites is still the “Jimmy Wales Method”, associated with voluntary donations.
Most likely, their “golden time” has passed, since it is very difficult to compete with social networks. However, I still see several paths for development.
It’s not easy to do, but I think the game is worth the trouble. If only because doing something on a volunteer basis is useful for self-development, it gives you some knowledge that you cannot get at work “for money”. In addition, participation in such a project makes it possible to do something useful and necessary for specific people and immediately observe the result, which at work is also possible, alas, not always. And finally, I personally am pleased to look at some fan sites left over from the first half of the “zero”. After all, this is a real “reserve”, in the “modern” Internet you will not find such a thing, and in the conditions of “equalization” of social networks (where the opportunities for creating groups are still limited), it would be impossible to create such a thing.
PS Honestly, at first I did not plan to publish this article on Habré, but wrote it only for my diary, in order to fully formulate my thoughts on this matter. But as I wrote, it occurred to me that it could be useful for someone else. If you have any thoughts on the topic - share them, please, in the comments.
For more than 3 years I have been a fan site administrator. Throughout this time (and even more), I try to follow similar communities on the network, their life and development. I want to stress right away that I am interested in narrow-topic communities supported by enthusiasts, and not commercial projects.
According to my observations, the flowering of such communities in the Russian-speaking Internet took place in 2005-2009. This corresponds to the time when high-speed Internet access appeared among the broad masses of the population (in particular, the “middle class” and social groups close to it in terms of income and lifestyle), and the prices for hosting and renting domain names decreased. As a result, a person got the opportunity to relatively easily and cheaply open a website dedicated to his favorite team, singer, rock band, actor, his hobby, etc. This site could be promoted by honest methods and get high rankings in search results without active PR and SEO. Simply put, this site could be successful. Widespread forums (almost completely supplanted guest books and message boards). The technical and informative level of such sites could be completely different.
')
However, gradually such communities began to fade. The active process took place in 2010-2011, after which only the largest and most active fan sites could remain “afloat”. However, their future is also foggy, which well illustrates the decline in attendance.
There are several reasons for this.
The main one is the emergence of social networks. Those made it possible to create “clubs of interest” in a simpler and more convenient way, with not less functionality, but requiring significantly less costs. A vivid example is VKontakte groups, sometimes with a huge audience. For an ordinary user, reading news from several groups in a single feed of updates is also more convenient than visiting several forums.
Another significant reason is related to the sharply increased commercialization of the Internet. Amateur site is now much more difficult to get into the top search engine results than before. Many fan sites have no financial support at all, except for the pockets of their owners, and are unable to withstand the competition with SEO projects.
There are several other reasons that seem less important. So, for example, it is easy to notice that network communication is now more egocentric than before. The development of social networks has led to the fact that people have a lot of new opportunities to talk about themselves : about where they are , what they think, what they like and so on. Services like Foursquare even turn it into something like a certain game, handing out badges for the maximum number of places visited on the map. In such a situation, writing “not about yourself” in your free time requires more motivation.
Some time ago it was considered that fan sites would be greatly helped by advertising and banner displays on the site. Receiving advertising revenue is indeed an effective means of supporting the site, but in practice almost no fan site could organize banner ads at the proper level. The reasons include the lack of necessary skills and knowledge among administrators of such sites (it’s no secret that among the creators of such communities the percentage of non-IT people, schoolchildren and students is very high), lack of motivation, as well as low income from ads that could be relevant to such sites . For example, it is quite simple to get income on a regular blog about life hacking or “photo collections a la Boston.com/bigpicture” by hanging the banner of some related project. Relevant ads for a fan site dedicated to, for example, a music group, are much smaller, in addition, they are usually cheaper. So the most popular way to financially help fan sites is still the “Jimmy Wales Method”, associated with voluntary donations.
What awaits fan sites in the future?
Most likely, their “golden time” has passed, since it is very difficult to compete with social networks. However, I still see several paths for development.
- The application of maximum effort to improve the site (filling with quality materials, news - they should appear faster than in competing groups on social networks or with minimal delay, technical improvement). This is, in principle, universal advice.
- Expansion of the site. For example, instead of a site about a single artist, you can expand it with materials about musicians with similar styles and audiences. On the one hand, there is a risk of losing regular visitors who are not accustomed to such a neighborhood, on the other - a significant number of new ones can be attracted.
- Website promotion. Without it, alas, can not do. I think it is correct to use only honest and not too intrusive methods. For example, creating an interesting twitter account (the example with lenta.ru will be very successful here, though not quite in the topic).
- Meetings and offline events. They are great people rallying, the main thing - do not let down with the organization.
- Search for sponsors and information partners. Have you made a great site dedicated to a French singer? What the hell is not joking, try to contact the cultural department of the French Embassy or the record label (although it is better not to get involved with the major).
It’s not easy to do, but I think the game is worth the trouble. If only because doing something on a volunteer basis is useful for self-development, it gives you some knowledge that you cannot get at work “for money”. In addition, participation in such a project makes it possible to do something useful and necessary for specific people and immediately observe the result, which at work is also possible, alas, not always. And finally, I personally am pleased to look at some fan sites left over from the first half of the “zero”. After all, this is a real “reserve”, in the “modern” Internet you will not find such a thing, and in the conditions of “equalization” of social networks (where the opportunities for creating groups are still limited), it would be impossible to create such a thing.
PS Honestly, at first I did not plan to publish this article on Habré, but wrote it only for my diary, in order to fully formulate my thoughts on this matter. But as I wrote, it occurred to me that it could be useful for someone else. If you have any thoughts on the topic - share them, please, in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/138034/
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